According to Dr. Jennifer Brinkerhoff of George Washington University, who has spoken at several security conferences regarding digital diaspora networks, extremist networks tend to become more liberal as their membership grows. The idea is that a network might start with an extreme point of view, but as they grow, that point of view becomes more centric. Extreme points of view are replaced with more centric, mainstream views. It’s a regression towards the mean, a well understood concept in statistics, being applied to social networks.

If California wants to check the runaway spikes in health care insurance costs, it should pass key legislation pending in the state Assembly that would require insurers to obtain approval from state regulators before charging more for their plans.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon's war on drugs has cost more than 34,000 lives in the last four years. There is mounting pressure for would-be presidential hopefuls to declare that, if elected, they would call off the war.

Revelations emerging last week that United States Forces in Korea buried large amounts of hazardous chemicals there, including the defoliant Agent Orange, are diminishing the Koreans’ trust in their most important ally.

Another advocate thinks that marijuana should be legalized, regulated, and taxed just like alcohol. David Tran says his dispensary, Conscious Care Cooperative, is not about recreational use but providing “qualified patients with high quality medicine in a safe environment.” The co-operative is organized as a non-profit organization but Tran still looks at it like a business.

The irrepressible talk show host and former Godfather Pizza CEO Herman Cain thinks he can stand the GOP on its head and get it to nominate him, an African-American, as its 2012 presidential standard bearer. But will his race come in the way?

French defenders of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former chief of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and accused rapist, are drawing sharp criticism from those who say his supporters are using, sexist language to defend him.

New revelations about the secret dumping of toxic chemicals, including Agent Orange, by American military forces in Korea has sparked renewed mistrust in the country over the actions of its longtime ally.

Washington state in the United States will issue driver’s licenses to people holding Korean licenses with a simple eye test, waiving written and driving tests. Korea will do the same for people holding Washington licenses.

In an earlier era, the accusations of a chambermaid that she had been sexually assaulted by the head of the IMF might have been ignored. But her complaint has caused the upending of French politics and shaken the economy of Europe.

A Malaysian tourist reported to a popular taxi company in Saigfvietnon that she was overcharged for a short ride by a company taxi driver, but later it turned out she had ridden in an unlicensed taxi that imitated that company’s brand.

One key to long-term economic recovery and ameliorating the disproportionate jobless rates is minority entrepreneurship. Policies are needed to promote digital skills and encourage access to high speed Internet for diverse communities.

Civil and immigrants’ rights groups across Georgia have rallied against the governor’s signing of House Bill 87, a controversial new law that mirrors legislation passed in Arizona, reports the Korea Daily.

Concerned that rural areas gain unfair political advantage from having state prisons in their voting districts, a move is afoot to force California to count inmates where they're from, not where they're incarcerated.

Within the space of just a few years, the communication landscape in Vietnam has totally changed. Figures from the Ministry of Information & Communications show that internet penetration has grown from 4% in 2003 to 31% in 2010. There are more people online in Vietnam than Thailand or Malaysia.

The Second Annual Hometown Heroes Awards – a partnership of Comcast and the Bay Area News Group -- recognized once again the outstanding, but often untold efforts of individuals and organizations making a difference in communities across the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond.

Foreclosures, the recession and government cutbacks have created a perfect storm of financial pressures. Payday lenders, fake mortgage modifiers, fraudulent lawyers, scam artists of all kinds are making huge amounts of money off vulnerable and desperate people.
Learn about the latest scams and how to advise your audiences about protecting themselves and their families. Find out where to go for government-subsidized financial counseling.

On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, journalists from across the United States are calling on the Islamic Republic of Iran to release their colleague, Shane Bauer, and his friend Josh Fattal, who have been held in detention for more than 21 months.

Members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus have issued statements on the death of Osama bin Laden, praising the Obama Administration and the armed forces but warning that the threat of terrorism continues.

Osama bin Laden has been killed, but it will be some time before history catches up with the myth around him and the al-Qaeda organization, as well as the fact that he had outlived his usefulness as a bogeyman for the West.

Patriotism is not the same thing as cheering in the streets when your side wins the Super Bowl. How many young people celebrating bin Laden's death at the White House have imagined themselves actually enlisting to fight in Afghanistan?

As crowds gathered across the U.S. to celebrate the killing of Osama bin Laden, ending a more than decade long hunt for the number one suspect in the World Trade Center bombings of 2001, a report in Korea's citizen journalist publication Oh My News urges Americans to reconsider their own country's role in creating bin Laden "the monster."